Tragedy at Boone County Airport by Gene Lair
The following is a
true story... Actual names and events leading up to the conclusion of this
story are used to re-create the catastrophe that occurred in 1985 near
Harrison, Arkansas.
In May 1985, the
people in Harrison were visited by then Vice President Bush. He, Congressman Hammerschmidt and other governmental
officials, arrived in Harrison to attend a ceremony at the North Arkansas
Community College, where Vice President Bush made a speech. The government officials and employees had
been transported to Harrison in two DC 9's.
As the owner-manager of the fixed base operation for the Boone County
Regional Airport, I witnessed the landing of the DC 9's. The weather was great that day, exceptionally
clear for flying.
Then, only two days
later, the weather was foggy, drizzling light rain, low cloud ceilings, and
limited visibility. It was nasty flying
weather, with little activity at the airport when I had left from work for home
about 5:00 that afternoon. It was
gloomy outside near 8:30 p.m. when my home phone rang. Ted Willis, an employee of Boone County
Aviation, was on the line.
"Gene! I think that
something terrible has happened."
Ted said in a nervous manner.
"What seems to
be the problem, Ted?" I quickly
replied.
"JR and Floyd
made an approach. It was really lousy
flying weather when they tried to land.
I watched the Citation fly down the runway. They were over half way down the runway
before I caught sight of them and they were too high to land, so they aborted
their landing attempt. Inside I heard them on the scanner telling center that
they missed the approach. They asked to try again and Memphis cleared them for
another Localizer Runway 36 approach, but that's been over 20 minutes ago and I
haven't heard anything since then."
Again I quickly
responded, "I'll call Flight Service and see what they say. I'll talk to you when I find out more."
Flight Service
confirmed that the Citation Floyd and J.R. flew, reported a missed approach,
and were approved for a second approach to Harrison, but radio contact had been
lost shortly after they reported Bakky, the outer marker, (an NDB radio fix) inbound).
I called Ted back and
told him that I would be right in.
Before leaving home I called a friend, Greg Walker, "Gregg one of
my pilots, J.R. Devine, is missing and may have crashed in the Citation he was
flying. I'm driving to the airport to
see if I can figure out what happened.
Would you like to come along?"
Greg said "Sure,
stop by, I'll go with you."
On the way to town, I
was thinking about the Localizer runway 36 approach. I considered they might have descended too low
on their second attempt and crashed short of the runway.
I picked up Gregg,
and when we arrived at the airport, I made a series of telephone calls to
determine if the pilots had made any other communications. I called Steve Redford, the owner of the
Citation: "Steve have you heard anything from Floyd Sike or J.R.
Devine?"
Steve said,
"No! Not since we got off here
at the School of the Ozarks earlier today. That was the last time I saw either
of them."
I reported,
"I've talked with Flight service and your aircraft is reported missing.
We’re conducting a search now to determine what has happened. Your Citation made an approach to attempt a
landing here over an hour ago and no one, including the Flight Service Station,
has heard anything since. We hoped they
may have choose an alternate airport and just failed to close their flight
plan."
"I'll drive on
down and help in the search,” Was Steve's alarmed response.
On the hope that J.R.
and Floyd may have landed at another airport I called and talked J.R.'s wife,
Debbie. "Debbie, have you heard anything from JR?”
"No” She
replied. I didn't want to upset her,
although I could tell that this call unnerved her.
I
continued,"They made an approach here in Harrison, but didn't land due to
low weather conditions, I was hoping J.R. might have called you after using an
alternate airport."
"They may have
gone to Flippin. Try Flippin. They may have landed at Flippin. Have you checked over there?" Debbie considered J.R. very resourceful and
knew occasionally he had landed in Flippin when the ceilings were too low for
Harrison. The field elevation there was
better than 500 feet below the Harrison airport that was 1374 feet above mean
sea level.
My reply: "No." "I've checked only with Flight
Service. I will call over and see if
they might have landed in Flippin. Then I'll report to you whatever I find
out."
My call to Flippin
requesting the local law officials to check at the unattended airport had
negative results. There was no Citation
on the field. My follow up report to
Debbie Devine was not a pleasant task.
Being unsuccessful
with the telephone, I decided on to walk out their probable path for the final
approach to the airport.
Greg and I drove to highway
206, at a point directly south of the Boone County Airport, and prepared to
walk the probable path an aircraft would take on its final approach to
landing. We began our walk north in the
grassy and brushy fields toward the airport, hoping to find something. It was a nasty, wet, foggy night, and there
were no reflections from the lights of town.
The darkness and fog made it difficult to see even a few feet ahead of
us. Considering that I might never see
J.R. alive again, I began thinking back to how our lives first became
involved...
At the latter part of
1981 Boone County Aviation, Inc. had
been successful in obtaining its bid for the fixed base operation in
Harrison. Two years prior this
corporation had been formed to operate as a flying club. Two principals formed
it: Jim Watt, a local minister and a flight instructor, and myself (Gene Lair),
a pilot and a real estate broker.
We had planned for
the rapid growth of the corporation to accomplish these tasks. We put together a multiplex plan to raise
needed capital and find qualified people to perform this operation.
We wanted a good
flight department for our operation. We discussed with David Christensen the
possibility of his heading our flight department. However, we were concerned that he had very
little fixed wing time and his charter experience had been primarily as
helicopter pilot operating in the Chicago area.
Two months into the
start date for our Fixed Base activities we had endured a few setbacks. The previous fixed base operator had filed a
lawsuit to try and hold his position. He
had filed this suit against the county airport commissioners and Boone County
Aviation, Inc. He had maintained possession of the county building and facilities
and would not allow us to operate on the premises. Judge McCorkindale finally ruled against this
previous operator, Quality Aviation, and in favor of Boone County Aviation and
the Airport Commissioners.
We then expanded our
corporation through the sale of stock to 9 new stockholders, and obtained a
line of credit with an out of town bank.
We bought fuel equipment, a Jet Fuel truck, office equipment, lobby
furniture, and shop equipment within the shop.
We then hired a variety of personnel as needed.
We had become aware
of J. R. Devine's availability for our position as chief pilot and director of
operations. Mr. Devine had a wife and 2
children and had been flying for the previous operator, Quality Aviation. J.R.'s resume of thousands of hours of
successful aviation experience in a widely ranging involvement in the
operations of small single and twin engine aircraft along with his positive
attitude encouraged us to accept him to handle our task. J.R. became our chief pilot and director of
flight operations. We then notified David
Christensen that we had made this selection and would no longer need his
services.
JR proved very
industrious and set about immediate efforts in heading our flight
department. We purchased two additional
aircraft and leased a twin engine baron. Our fleet had now been enlarged to a
total of 6 aircraft. Within a year we
had lost one of our small single aircraft in a local accident, a renter pilot
had crashed on our local runway. We then
acquired another aircraft, a leased twin, a Piper Seneca II, a type that J.R.
had recommended.
In 1984 we added
another aircraft to our fleet under a management contract. This was a King Air that was owned by
Guaranty Savings & Loan. Our
Corporation sent J.R. to Wichita, Kansas and he was instructed in the Beechcraft
King Air flight-training program. The
King Air was adapted to our 135-charter flight program.
It was not uncommon
to find myself in an argument with J.R. as did other employees, and
co-workers. He was adamant on doing
things his way. On two different
occasions over the period J.R. worked for Boone County Aviation he got into
verbal conflicts with other personnel to the point of no reconciliation, and I
was forced on two occasions to make a choice between J. R. and his adversary. In both of these occasions I chose in favor
of keeping J.R. and letting his adversary (the lesser valued employee) go. Our Director of flight operations had earned
a reputation as headstrong. When he
decided on something it was difficult if not impossible to change his
opinion. Despite these problems and the
disagreements he and I personally had, I still had a great deal of respect for
his skills and his value to our company, and over his years with us I had found
him extremely loyal, beneficial to important company goals and objectives.
I remember one
evening a charter had popped up requesting us to dispatch a twin engine
aircraft to Denver, Colorado to pick an individual. The individual was an employee of Harrison
Gold and Silver, a commodities company that was locally operated by Nick
Gaurino. I had personally reviewed the
weather, and calculated the price for this trip about $1,680.00. I argued "J.R. we ought to forget this
trip. This weather is really crappie
with a solid squall line between here and Denver having cloud tops of over
48,000 feet. Besides, Nick might walk
on the bill."
"We need the
trip, and I want to take it!" J. R.
was firm. J.R.'s wife was an employee
of Nick and he felt more comfortable than I did with Nick's ethics. I felt about Nick as I would a Mafia
character, and for all I knew he might have been Mafia connected. He was fat, arrogant, and always spoke with a
sarcastic manner. When I think of Nick I
remember him in his new Rolls Royce with his look-alike ugly bulldog in the
front seat beside him. I had been in his
home. It had computers in practically
every room. His home had two swimming
pools: one indoor, the other in the shape of a dollar sign that was
outside. Outside were two satellites
receiving antennas so he could monitor the Hong Kong Market reports and other
commodity information with his computers.
I did not feel comfortable with Mr. Gaurino.
I pleaded with J.R.,
"You have already put in a long day and this will be a tiring trip. At least let me, or some other pilot go as
your co-pilot. This would give you some rest."
"No thanks, I
don't want someone riding with me who would want to turn around and come back
when it gets rough out there."
"O.K. J. R., we’ll let you do it your way, but I
really think you should turn this one down for general safety Principles."
He made the flight
successfully, and we did get paid. I
never heard directly from him about the conditions of the flight, but through a
conversation he had with another pilot it was repeated to me that he had
considered the trip almost his limit.
Sometimes I felt he was testing for his limits. He had made a casual remark to me one time
that, "When I die it will probably be suddenly in a high performance
aircraft."
On another flight
situation J.R. and I had completed a check run and had delivered checks from 8
banks in this region to Little Rock making ground deliveries at 3 major banks
and the Federal Reserve Center. J.R. had
flown down on this trip and I was to fly back to Harrison. I checked the weather for our return with the
local Flight Service Station on field at Adam's Field there in Little
Rock. I did not like the information
that I had received and considered it unsafe due to a cold front had passed
Harrison and was moving toward Little Rock.
It was followed by a squall line of widely spread high intensity
thunderstorms carrying numerous imbedded thunder cells. With a departure as planned we could expect
to strike this activity about Marshall, Arkansas. Getting back into the aircraft I ask
"J.R. did you look at the weather?"
He responded
"Looks o.k. to me."
I said "You know
we've completed our mission, and I think it would be prudent if we sat this one
out for the two hours it would take for frontal passage here in Little
Rock. I'd be happy to buy our supper at
the Cajun's Wharf."
"No! A person
can always make excuses; I want to go on through. Besides, some people would
pay good money for this type of excitement"
As we departed the
Little Rock area the Departure control handed us over to Memphis center. The Center Controller upon accepting us into
his air space asked, "Have you checked your weather?"
I was
flying and J.R. responded "Affirmative, we are satisfied” This, I'm sure
was not what center wanted to hear.
The air traffic
controller working out of Memphis called us again a few minutes later as we
were progressing toward the thunderstorm to warn us "I'm picking up heavy
thunderstorm echoes 30 miles to your northwest." "I would recommend for you a vector to
your west around through the Russellville area that should give you a smoother
ride."
JR responded
"Negative, we want to continue on direct"
The controller
replied "O.K., But you are going into some heavy, and extremely turbulent
activity."
I argued with J.R.
"What do you mean negative? Why not go with their suggestion and go by
Russellville? For my part go back to
Little Rock and wait this one out. I'm
paying the bills and it won’t hurt my feelings or my pocket book to spend the
extra time and money on this."
"They would send
you to Tim-Buck-Too if you let them"
We continued against
my better judgment. The patter of rain on the metal body of our aircraft began
lightly then with steadily increasing intensity it became a pounding torrential
rain forcing a showery spray of water through and around the joints of the
doors and windows. We were now inside
this mature and violent cloud formation, Our small aircraft was under the
control of a variety of air movements pushing the small craft from side to side
and up and down with the violence of a bucking bronco. My attempts of control were falling out of
sync with the abrupt and capricious wind velocities within this volatile
thunderstorm. Both J.R. and I were
fighting the controls even though it felt impossible. Control by instruments now required our
complete attention. We had no outside
visible assurance of our in-flight posture. It was like riding a wild horse
with a bag over your head. It was
questionable whether we were winning or loosing the battle of control. Stresses on seatbelt restraints were being
forced to near their limits. We were
blinded by jolts of lightning followed by ear splitting blasts of thunder. Minutes stretched into what seemed like
terrifying hours. Finally we reached an
area of less violence and a gradual calm begins to replace the turbulence. Then steadily the flight conditions began
improving and becoming normal. Now we
were on the backside of the cell and clear of the frontal condition. I sighed with relief. What had seemed like hours were in actuality
only about 10 to 15 minutes.
"N13380, How was
your ride." Came Memphis center’s query to us.
JR responded, but I
couldn't hear his comment.
We
arrived back in Harrison all intact. I
have never had the desire to duplicate this type of thrill since that
night. I have read many accident reports
where good pilots operating equal or superior aircraft have lost wings due to
the extreme stresses created and crashed to the ground in fatal accidents in
this type of weather, and I have had no desire to prove my superiority to
mother nature.
...We had reached the
airport now without a hint of the Citation.
It was possible that due to the very low poor visibility and the total
darkness we could have walked near the aircraft wreckage without being able to
see it. It was late now, well after
midnight. We talked with others back at
the Boone County Aviation operations that had similar luck, and not found
anything. We then decided to give up the
search for the night and continue in the morning with the help of the Civil Air
Patrol and the FAA who were to be in town.
Early the next
morning there was no rain, but still cloudy with forecast for early morning
clearing. A number of different groups
had gathered to conduct the search for the missing aircraft and
crewmembers. The Civil Air Patrol and
the FAA were on hand to conduct this search.
They began an intelligence operation to assembly all known data about
what may have happened. Shirley Bell, a local realtor who lived near Pilot's knob
called in telling of an explosion she heard and felt that was near the time
that their second approach was to have taken place.
Due to persisting low
clouds it was after 9:00 a.m. before search planes could get airborne and it
was after 10:00 a.m. that the crew on our 4 place Cessna Skyhawk radioed a
sighting of the wreckage in. The
Citation had cut a path through the dense growth of trees and came to rest near
the base of a stone bluff that jutted upward about 80 to 100 feet above the
crash site. The top of this bluff was
near the top of Pilots Knob, a small mountain a little more than 3 miles west
of the Boone County regional Airport. Following receipt of this information we
drove as far as we could on up a county gravel road leading up pilot's knob
toward where we understood the crash site to be. We then walked through the
brush and cow paths the rest of the way.
Several news agencies with camera crews were already on the scene to
inspect and talk to some of the people who came up to the scene.
The tail section
appeared in tact. The fuselage was bent. The wings were demolished. The front section of the aircraft that
enclosed the cockpit was badly burned. The exterior of aluminum skin that
should have covered the cockpit had melted away exposing the grotesque view of
the charred remains of the two pilots.
Debbie Devine had reached the scene ahead of me and her agonizing
screams after sighting her dead husband were heart wrenching.
Enduring this
gruesome scene I tried to imagine why this accident had occurred. This was well off the normal path for their
last localizer 36 approach. My mind went
back in time to review and consider the possible error that had caused this
tragedy...
Floyd Sikes, now 53
years old, had received his flight training in the Navy. He had been a trained as pilot for a Navy
fighter jet. It had been his job to fly a Navy fighter jet as a combat
pilot. The highly precision and
difficult task of take off's and landing’s on an aircraft carrier deck had been
a routine for Floyd. Now in his civilian
life he served Steve Redford as the chief pilot, he was in command, and sat in
the left seat of the Citation, a high performance twin engine jet aircraft
manufactured by Cessna. His earlier
training and background had prepared him for this job. Steve Redford, the aircraft owner, had hired
him and considered Floyd among the best available pilots, capable of protecting
the Redford investment, and lives of those who were to ride on board this
modern high speed method of corporate transportation.
Earlier that day
Floyd arranged with J. R. Devine to fly right seat as his co-pilot for the
trips did planned for the day since Ron Archer his usual co- pilot, was
unavailable. Floyd expressed some
concern to Karen, secretary of Boone County Aviation, about the trip planned
that day, while making these arrangements he told Karen that over the previous
weekend his lady friend's mother had given him an ultimatum. Floyd had been dating a lady lawyer who lived
in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.
Floyd said to Karen
"She told me that I have been dating her daughter for over a year now, and
that I should either marry her or let her go." He had talked to Karen before about his
woman, and told Karen that he loved her, but hadn't decided that he could
tolerate her two children in the same house.
Floyd was perturbed
about this weekend experience as well as the inclement weather forecast for the
trips planned. He then told Karen "If I don't make it back please tell my
lady that I did love her and that I intended to marry her."
JR Devine, 39 years
old, was not the regular co-pilot, but was selected today to replace the
unavailable Ron Archer, who usually served as co-pilot, also was among the best
in piloting skills. J.R.'s flight
education had not been as formal or as costly as Floyd's had, but it had
uniquely qualified him. His skills had
been derived from a variety of jobs throughout his career. He had operated numerous aircraft in a number
of commercial aviation jobs and as a charter pilot and for than 3 years he had
served as chief pilot for Boone County Aviation, Inc. In addition He had served
as pilot in command for jobs involving the use of numerous small general
aviation aircraft based in Arkansas, California, Canada, and Mexico. J.R. had been a bush pilot in Canada in addition
to having flown as a crop duster pilot for 2 years in Mexico. His was rated as a commercial pilot for
single and twin engine aircraft, a certified flight instructor including an
instrument instructor. His logbook claimed over 10,000 flight hours.
The weather at the
time of their attempted landing was reported at 500 overcast, visibility two
miles in rain and fog. This was a
minimum condition for landing at this airport and although not highly
accommodating, it was a job the men had been trained for, and their aircraft
with its sophisticated electronic navigation systems was designed to
handle. Making an instrument approach in
foggy and rainy weather requires the complete and dedicated attention of the
pilots, and the faithful marriage of the men and their machine.
The approach
procedure they were using would have brought them into the Airport area first
using the VOR (a Very High Frequency transmitter) to navigate. The Vor is located 4.4 miles Northwest of the
center of the runway. The next phase was
to use the vor to direct them to the NDB (a non directional beacon, a low frequency
transmitter) to place them about 5 miles south of runway 36 on the reverse
course of the Localizer. Then they would
continued outbound for a couple of miles at an altitude of 3,800 feet; Then
turn into a procedure turn first to the southeast for one minute; Then back to
the northwest on an interception course until centering the localizer (another
high frequency precise navigational aid) beam; Then at that time turn back
north adjusting for wind to remain centered on the localizer. They were to descend to 2,700 by reaching the
NDB (Bakky) again at that point they should begin letting down to 1840 feet to
the minimum descent altitude before reaching the airport. They were not to go below 1840 feet until; If
they were able to see the runway and with sufficient runway remaining they
would let down and land.
They were almost
successful on their first approach. However, they were too far down the length
of the runway to make a safe landing so they opted for a missed approach and
ask for another approach instead of calling for an alternate airport. Again
they went back to the VOR that requires a receiver setting of 112.5. If they had not been cleared for a second
approach this would have become their holding fix for a holding pattern at
3,500 feet according to the missed approach procedures. Memphis Center cleared them for a second
approach. They proceeded outbound with the Citation as described only this time
they apparently failed to change the frequency of their inbound tracking
frequency from 112.5 (the vor) to 111.7 (the Localizer). They reported crossing
the NDB inbound and called this out to Memphis Center. "Citation
N.... We’ve cross Bakky inbound on the Localizer 36 approach to
Harrison." Said an onboard pilot.
It is possible that
both pilots may have been looking outside the aircraft for lights, runway
lights and other identifying features.
Their attention may have been diverted from the ADF needle that probably
was showing that they were proceeding west of the desired course. They may have failed to verify the frequency
they were monitoring and failed to reset the frequency from the VOR at 112.5
when they were executing a missed approach to the localizer at 111.7 the one
they should have been on to detect their position in relationship to the
Localizer signal. Centering the needle
for the VOR would have established their path directly toward Pilots knob.
The pilots died not
because the needles lied, but most likely because they were monitoring the
wrong signal. They appeared to have been
tracking the VOR when they were using the Localizer 36 approach. The Localizer 36 procedure allowed them to
descent to minimum altitude of 1,840 feet after crossing Bakky on the proper
procedure, but they were probably in error with the VOR frequency and had
proceeded over 3 miles west of the runway at a point where the terrain of
pilots knob rose up to 2,090 feet msl.
This was a fatal mistake. If it
was a game or a simulator you might say, "I'm sorry I really meant to use
the Localizer frequency let me try again".
Many times in real life you only have one shot to do it right.
The pilots’ lives
ended abruptly with this accident and the lives of all those who were involved
in this search were changed in varying degrees.
Debbie Devine, J.R.'s wife, battled with the insurance company to obtain
a settlement in addition to receiving the death benefits for the loss of her
husband from workman's compensation. Her
children have been raised without a father.
Steve Redford never bought another aircraft to replace the Citation he
lost. He was a highly successful real
estate entrepreneur, among his achievements, having sold a site to the famous
Palace Theater in Branson, the developer of Point Royale. His operations included directing numerous
Time-share sales, lot sales and sales of Condominiums in the Branson area. Steve later was convicted for arranging what
was said to be the largest Bankruptcy fraud in the U.S. History; it was
reported that he gave states evidence in the sentencing of Missouri Attorney General
Bill Webster, to help lighten his prison term.
Boone County Aviation suffered severe financial penalties due to the loss
of their chief pilot.
A minor aspect: The
King Air that J.R. had been trained to fly did not have a pilot to continue its
operations. However, this would not have
lasted long due to the Federal Government's closing of Guaranty Savings &
Loan, which resulted in the sale of the King Air.
Many changes took
place because of the accident, but life goes on for the living.
The End
